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Student mentoring is increasingly visible in professional practice, and in recent years, universities have integrated peer mentoring across different programs. To provide student mentors with appropriate support and contribute to the future development and success of student mentoring, it is necessary to investigate not only the benefits afforded to mentees but also student mentors' perceptions of their experiences. This small-scale action research study was conducted with participants who were recruited from the academic language mentoring program for second language students in a Bachelor of Nursing program in Norway. Multi-stage focus group interviews were used to explore participants' early experiences of being a mentor, mentorship activities, and the impact of mentoring on personal and professional development. The multi-step method is essential in practical action research because it creates both a space for reflection and dialogues on important themes and contributes to joint learning and formation of practical knowledge. Findings suggest that student mentors perceive their experiences as academic and linguistic mentors as highly relevant to their future professional role as nurses and their future role as mentors to colleagues and students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: According to the recommendations set out in the Norwegian Guidelines for Prevention and Treatment of Malnutrition, community nurses must assess their patients' nutritional risk at the time of admission or registration with the health service, and regularly every month thereafter. Purpose: To investigate how community nurses interpret and uphold sound professional practice with respect to the requirements set out in the Norwegian Guidelines for Prevention and Treatment of Malnutrition. Method: A qualitative study involving analysis of data from two practice development projects. The incremental analysis identified meaning units, sub-themes and themes (32). Four themes were identified and categorised from across the body of material. The data include twelve group interviews with nineteen nurses employed by two different local authorities. Results: Management support is important for the implementation of systematic nutritional screening. The nurses suggested that their familiarity with the patients and their nutritional needs is an important factor with respect to organising the practical arrangements in the home. The nurses felt it was challenging to assess the patient's intake of food and drink around the clock. They found themselves in the field of tension between preserving the home dweller's autonomy, complying with the recommendations for systematic nutritional screening and coping with pressures of time. Conclusion: Nutritional care is a person-centred, practical approach adjusted to the domestic arena. The community nurses ask whether the requirements of the professional guidelines take sufficient account of the home-based context. Close cooperation between managers and staff is required for systematic assessment of nutritional risk to be achieved within the constraints imposed by existing resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: For many years, co-ordinated collaboration has been a challenging issue for the health and social services, nationally and internationally. In the mental health sector it has been particularly difficult to identify initiatives that might ensure continuity of care as patients transition from the specialised health service and into the primary health service. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the experiences of health care professionals across the disciplines when attending collaborative interdisciplinary meetings held two weeks after the patient had been discharged from the specialised psychogeriatric health service and into nursing homes. Method: This sub-study forms part of a larger participation-based research project, PASSUS, which looks into quality development and actions. This project focuses on patient-oriented interaction at the point of discharge into nursing home care and involves one psychogeriatric hospital department and four nursing homes. It looks specifically at one of the improvement measures: co-ordinated collaborative meetings. The study has a descriptive qualitative design and is based on written notes from twelve such collaborative meetings. Results: Our analysis of the material suggests that the participants' descriptions can be grouped in four summary categories: 1) information about individualised care and treatment, 2) knowledge exchange, 3) mutual recognition and affirmation, and 4) improvement measures. Conclusion: The study involved meetings between the health care personnel who had been responsible for the follow-up of patients in the psychogeriatric department, and those who took over this responsibility for the patient in the nursing home. Our analysis showed that the collaborative meetings contributed to interdisciplinary knowledge exchange, as well as increased understanding and insight into the patient's situation. The collaborative meetings show how co-ordinated systematic interaction can boost competence levels and ensure continuity of care between service sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Background: Maintaining independence in activities of daily living, including when eating meals, may be challenging for persons with dementia. To uphold person-centred care there is a need for knowledge of how to facilitate mealtimes in such circumstances. Aims: To develop knowledge of how nurses promote independence at mealtimes for persons with severe dementia, and to explore their practice from a person-centred perspective. Methods: A collaborative action research project was conducted over two years in a Norwegian hospital for older persons with mental health challenges and severe dementia. The nurses conducted observations at mealtimes and presented narratives as a basis for group reflections, care planning and individualised adjustments. In the qualitative analysis, commonalities and differences in meal situations were explored and a constructed narrative was designed to identify the nurses’ actions and attitudes. Results: Person-centred practice and different levels of simplification in the planning and facilitation of meals for older persons with severe dementia seemed to help uphold their independence and dignity. This was achieved by careful observations during meals, when the nurses took the role of hostesses. Promoting independence for persons with severe dementia requires ongoing commitment, with practical reflection among the nurses and evaluation in everyday practice. Conclusions and implications for practice: • Facilitation of meals for older persons with severe dementia using a person-centred approach seems to increase the nurses’ attention to people’s independence and dignity • Sharing narratives from meal observations in reflective dialogues promotes the nurses’ competence in planning meals with different levels of simplification • Building in systematic attentive observations and sharing narratives in everyday practice may be an important step in practice development • Critical dialogue seems to strengthen awareness of person-centred facilitation of meals for persons with dementia, and also strengthened the staff’s interest in exploring practical issues in their practice [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]